Happy hour Fast Laps at the Thunder Lounge
by Charlie Turner
I'm Charlie Turner co-host of the syndicated, mostly NASCAR radio show On Pit Row. Thanks for stopping by OnPitRow.com and the Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie blog. Oh yeah, Steve is an idiot.
March 31, 2008 9:09 pm CDT 7 CommentsIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Man, I love races at Martinsville. I admit that it is often hard for me to maintain my focus for the three and a half hours of most Sprint Cup races. But it never seems a problem at the little paper clip in Virginia. Sunday was fun to watch.
I am a bit shocked that Jeff Gordon failed to win the thing. Both he and Jimmy Johnson had to work back, through the pack, to the front. The relentless way that they did so showed they ain’t as dead as the haters had hoped.
Nice comeback by Jamie McMurray and ditto for Casey Mears. There were plenty of short track tempers shown and the carnage within the fleet was a joy to behold. Too bad it’ll be so long before they go back again.
Next up is something completely different, as they use to say on Monte Python’s Flying Circus. Heading down to the home of the Thunder Lounge at Texas Motor Speedway. One of NASCAR’s fastest tracks will be a real change of pace for the cupsters. Try out TMS with four highly banked Fast Lap questions and you might just be featured ON PIT ROW.
1. Even without a win at Martinsville, is Hendrick Motorsports back?
2. In retrospect, should Michael Waltrip Racing have handled the Dale Jarrett/David Reutimann owner’s points swap situation differently?
3. With the awful weather conditions so far this year - is it time for NASCAR to look at wholesale schedule changes?
4. Was NASCAR’s in-race penalty sufficient for Matt Kenseth’s retaliation towards David Gilliland or should they levy additional punishment?
Go to the comments section and give us your best answers to our four Fast Lap questions but remember you are limited to 100 words or less for each. Then remember to stop back throughout the week to defend yourself from the fender banging of your friends. While here, feel free to bump draft fellow Fast Lappers too. We use the best - and sometimes the worst - comments on the radio version of ON PIT ROW. You can listen live on Tuesdays from 5-7 PM EDT at OnPitRow.com.
Photo credit - Icon Sports Media, Inc.
Comments
7 Responses to “Happy hour Fast Laps at the Thunder Lounge”
Got something to say?
Did you know you can log in with your
Thunder Lounge account, and have your
personal avatar and site link available when you comment at On Pit Row?
Don't have an account yet? Sign-up for free.
About the Fast Lap blog
Fast Laps! Welcome to the On Pit Row Fast Lap blog. Every week On Pit Row we pose four Fast Lap questions. Four corners - four questions. On the radio show, Steve and I have 30 seconds each, to give our response to each of the four. If you are a listener, you already know that we rarely agree on any answer. The Fast Lap is NASCAR debate. Hannity and Colmes. Lincoln and Douglas. Wronkowicz and Turner. OK, maybe not Lincoln and Douglas. We have more fun than Lincoln and Douglas. Here's the challenge. We will post our Fast Lap questions some time each Monday. Four questions on topical NASCAR related subjects. Your mission is to comment with your answers and each answer is limited to 100 words. The questions, answers and comments will form the basis of this blog for that week. Comment on the Fast Lap questions. Comment on the comments. Insult the commenters. Witty ridicule is rated at least as highly as cogent commentary. Just remember that you have limited words and penalties are severe. Or not. Steve and I will select worthy blog entries to be featured on an edition of On Pit Row. That's the plan. I'm sure we will have some other things to post about each week but the intention is to pose most posts as questions. I want to argue with you! Bring it on.
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
Google Search
NASCAR Fantasy Racing
On Pit Row is glad to be a part of such a great NASCAR fantasy racing game like Champs, Chumps & Sleepers. Grand prize is a Dale Jarrett Racing Adventure. How cool is that?
1) they were never gone.
2) in retrospect MWR could have, but NASCAR got it right in the end.
3) you know I’ve been thinking that for the last few years, they should, but they won’t too much money invovled.
4) I think the penalty was fine for what it was. If it was on pit road I would be jumping up and down for more. If it were at a high speed track where the dangers are significantly more pronounced I’d probably be jumping up and down too - but in this case I think what NASCAR did was fine. It is consistent to what they have done in the past at least.
1. HMS was never “gone”. Gordon & Junior ran well as they have all season; Mears stayed out of trouble; Johnson’s team has been the one struggling, and yes, I believe they are back.
2. What I thought MWR should have done from the get-go was put DJ in the 00 car for his five races with UPS sponsoring that car for those races. Let Reutimann run the entire season in the 44 with UPS coming on after DJ’s retirement. Try to do a sponsor swap rather than a points swap.
3. Most of the awful weather as been rain-induced, and that’s something you just can’t really schedule around. There are a couple of races, however, that just don’t belong where they are on the schedule. Holding races in Rockingham in February and November was assenine, and the solution to that was to scrap the Rock altogether - hopefully that doesn’t happen with Martinsville. I’d swap Martinsville and Phoenix on the Spring schedule.
4. It depends on what mindset you are. If you’re one of those people that believes in the consistency across the board that NASCAR’s striving to achieve, then yes, it was the right penalty. If you’re like me and believes that common sense should apply, then no, it was nowhere near sufficient.
1. Gordon, Johnson and Junior could drive the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile to a top 5 at Martinsville. Nice run for Mears, though.
2. Tim is right, rewrappig the #00 in brown was their only option.
3. If it rains in Fontana, what else can you do?
4. Drivers have done far worse and weren’t penalized beyond the race weekend.
1) I’ll second Mike. Forget the truck, bring on the Weinermobile. Perfect fit for Martinsville as well.
2) Probably would have been a good idea to clear it with NASCAR before the season, and made a decision there. Then again, it could have went the other way as well. Guess Welcome Wagon paid a visit to McDowell this go around.
3) I remember freezing my butt off in the stands at Rockingham, too. Once the race got going, it wasn’t on your mind. Although that warm air off the cars sure felt good as they went by. As for a schedule change, what exactly could you really do that would work? Cali that time of year is hit/miss, but you pretty much have to do a swing out that way if you want to really get the season kicked off with the best chance of avoiding weather. Could move Phoenix into the first swing, then move Texas back to before Martinsville, but the choices are limited that early on.
4) If NASCAR drops a penalty on it this week, it would be insane. Done. Over. Forgotten.
1- I’m sticking with my original prediction that the 48 team will continue to run in some bad luck all year. Its just pain time for things to even out for one of the luckiest teams on the circuit. The 88 and 24 will continue to move up the charts because Jeffy just has too much talent to stay down. Junior is cashing in on his new found freedom to just be him. Casey–don’t bet the farm on him.
2- Both the #00 and the #44 should have been UPS sponsored from the get go. Then, if need be, when DJ retired, Reutimann could have jumped into whichever Camry they saw fit. Remember that the car has the points attached to it not the driver.
3- Granted that there isn’t much you can do about the weather in Cali. After all it isn’t supposed to rain there. But it makes no sense to make two trips to the left side within the first two months of the season. Move Texas and Phoenix to the first western migration. That will automatically move Bristol and Martinsville back a couple of weeks.
4- I think Matt did a great job of penalizing himself. Once the splitter was gone–he was done. NASCAR did it right with the penalty box call. No further adjudication is necessary.
Where did Steve learn to use a word like “adjudication”?
Charlie, maybe you’re finally rubbing off on him.
Apparently Steve has a thesaurus - but no spell-checker.
1. After five seasons of looking up with surprise at the fact that Jimmy Johnson is leading the points and nobody gives him credit - it does not surprise me that most are writing him off after SIX WHOLE RACES! Absolutely no respect evre - none. Unbe-freakin’-lievable! Johnson will be top five by the all-star race. The other members of the HMST (HendrickMotorsportsSuperTeam) were, as Bob said, never gone.
2. Well they probably should have asked NASCAR if they would allow the mid-season points swap before announcing the intention to do it. Less embarrassing that way. Having UPS on both cars might have helped, but the UPS brand is tied to the #44, so I don’t see how it would have helped.
3. What are they going to do? Scedule races for Bahrain? They race in North America. It rains there. Deal with it.
4. It seems like this was the proper use of the rule book. Consistent with NASCAR’s stated goal of not over-officiating this season. Matt pretty well screwed himself anyway, as Steve said. Man that was one messed up race car, that #17.